Are you doing that conversion with Calibre? If so, it's much easier to use kiwidude's wonderful Modify ePub plugin to remove embedded fonts. Multiple conversions may lead to funny changes in formatting or other unintended changes.

Cheers,
Simon.

Thanks. So far I had no problems with multiple back and forth conversion. I rarely do it these days or even have a reason to use calibre because my bookstores sell books all watermarked and if you buy 1 format you get 2 more for free. Example, I bought watermarked epub bio of Steve Jobs. In my online library after purchase I can download epub, mobi or pdf. And this is how it frigging should be.

On another note, I bought a faulty (?) epub which divided words in strange places and was very uncomf
ortable (that's an example) to read. Off to calibre and now it is beautiful.

I open up the epubs in Sigil and delete the fonts themselves. Then I also go through the stylesheet.css file and delete all references to "font-family:xxxx" where all the special fonts are called. You don't change anything else about the epub that way, the formatting and code stay the same. If there's excess images like I said, various sizes of the same image, I delete those too and the pages that reference them, they're just about always on their own page. Then it all reverts to default font uses, or if you have a hack on your reader that allows more fonts, you can freely change to any font you want.

I also don't like when they include several chapters or images from another book, another waste of space although that part is usually minimal... I'll never ever read them that way. Either I'm interested in the book and will buy it or not, reading the opening chapters, where it's usually the slowest-moving of the storyline, will never make me want or not want a book. The images though can be a pain, I've seen some books with a multitude of smaller images for almost every book an author has written... waste of space as well as annoying to me and I remove those pages and images as well.

Conversions as said can help, but can you sometimes end up with undesired results. The Modify ePub plugin can also be tried, but it's not always 100% foolproof, I've run across some books where it didn't remove the font. Sigil is so simple to use and you're in total control of what gets changed or not.

Mobi files are always larger in file size than the identical epub. A lot of times the mobi files are created in both new and old mobi formats, which is actually the 2 versions in one file. If I convert an epub into mobi, I always select the older format, which is the smaller size and will be compatible on all Kindles.

I'm doing the same thing: deleting excessive covers and images, and I also delete the fonts. But I dont delete the references to "font-family:xxxx" in the stylesheet. Can this do any harm?

I'm doing the same thing: deleting excessive covers and images, and I also delete the fonts. But I dont delete the references to "font-family:xxxx" in the stylesheet. Can this do any harm?

It does no harm at all. If the font family referenced is something that's on your system or your reader, you will still see their font, or the serif version you have (or sans serif, whichever it calls for). You won't be able to change it to your preference.

Removing that line lets you freely change all fonts so your reader displays your choice. There may be times you want to keep the original fonts, such as fancy chapter titles, for the publishing pages, etc. You could go through and pull out only those for the main body of text, but it usually takes too much time sorting out all the references, especially when you have a stylesheet with 100 different styles referenced.

And yet another reason to want to strip DRM from a book so you can get rid of the embedded fonts. I've purchased a few books that went crazy with images as well, where they have the same exact cover image in 5 different sizes... makes zero sense, and I'll open those up as well and get rid of the unnecessary images that are just wasting space on my reader.

But embedded fonts for me is something that I will always immediately get rid of.

Why would you remove the fonts? In most cases, they make the eBooks look better. Also, if you don't like the amount of space they take up, you could use Calibre to subset the fonts and any not used will be deleted and the rest will be reduced in size. I've gone from like 3.5MB down to 800K by subsetting.

Are you doing that conversion with Calibre? If so, it's much easier to use kiwidude's wonderful Modify ePub plugin to remove embedded fonts. Multiple conversions may lead to funny changes in formatting or other unintended changes.

Cheers,
Simon.

Very good solution. Much better then converting. Modify ePub is a plugin I use for every ePub I load into Calibre.

Thanks. So far I had no problems with multiple back and forth conversion. I rarely do it these days or even have a reason to use calibre because my bookstores sell books all watermarked and if you buy 1 format you get 2 more for free. Example, I bought watermarked epub bio of Steve Jobs. In my online library after purchase I can download epub, mobi or pdf. And this is how it frigging should be.

On another note, I bought a faulty (?) epub which divided words in strange places and was very uncomf
ortable (that's an example) to read. Off to calibre and now it is beautiful.

How could you have bought Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson watermarked? The eBook is sold by Simon & Schuster. S&S do not watermark. They use DRM.

Why would you remove the fonts? In most cases, they make the eBooks look better.

For myself with bad eyesight, I find using my own font of choice to be a much more pleasant read and without any eyestrain. I can't think of one instance where an embedded font made a book "look better"... it's usually the opposite effect for me. The fonts embedded in books are always too thin for my eyesight. If it's difficult to read because of the font, it ruins the enjoyment of the book.

It's a matter of choice. But the first thing I always do is remove all embedded fonts. No one but me and my eyes can tell me what's a comfortable font for me to read, and forcing their choice on me isn't going to work. If I scan a book, I never embed or even specify font choices for the main body of text. I do often for the pages like the TOC, publishing, etc., but never for the main body.

While I love my font choice, I'd never force it on anyone else realizing everyone's preference will be different.

Thanks. So far I had no problems with multiple back and forth conversion. I rarely do it these days or even have a reason to use calibre because my bookstores sell books all watermarked and if you buy 1 format you get 2 more for free. Example, I bought watermarked epub bio of Steve Jobs. In my online library after purchase I can download epub, mobi or pdf. And this is how it frigging should be.

For myself with bad eyesight, I find using my own font of choice to be a much more pleasant read and without any eyestrain. I can't think of one instance where an embedded font made a book "look better"... it's usually the opposite effect for me. The fonts embedded in books are always too thin for my eyesight. If it's difficult to read because of the font, it ruins the enjoyment of the book.

It's a matter of choice. But the first thing I always do is remove all embedded fonts. No one but me and my eyes can tell me what's a comfortable font for me to read, and forcing their choice on me isn't going to work. If I scan a book, I never embed or even specify font choices for the main body of text. I do often for the pages like the TOC, publishing, etc., but never for the main body.

While I love my font choice, I'd never force it on anyone else realizing everyone's preference will be different.

Sometimes a font has to be embedded because of some of the characters used in the text are not available in some of the default fonts. So in order to guarantee all of the eBook is readable, a font is embedded.

I do fully understand your reasoning for removing embedded fonts. Sometimes I do find the main font used is too thin and I either replace it with a thicker version (If I have such), modify it to add weight or change it. I prefer not to change it if I don't have to if I can get it to work.

I recently had a library book that was 1.8 mb - this was a standard fiction book, no longer than any of the other books I usually read, no photos. It was really annoying because it took a long time to open and page turns were slow.

Those books are sadly not in English. But here is a screenshot I took of my online library with 3 types available to download plus where I underlined "watermark" for mobi (epub is DRMed from what I saw)

the site is empik.com. They do have international catalogue in English and German but I think only on paper.

Those books are sadly not in English. But here is a screenshot I took of my online library with 3 types available to download plus where I underlined "watermark" for mobi (epub is DRMed from what I saw)

the site is empik.com. They do have international catalogue in English and German but I think only on paper.

That is serious hypocritical for the publisher to offer Mobi without DRM but a watermark and force people who read ePub to have to have DRM. But I suppose it's the only way to sell to a Kindle user without sending them to Amazon.

No, it's not hypocritical. If a publisher wants to have some kind of drm he can't do otherwise. Outside Amazon, he can't sell a mobi book with drm, even if he would like so.
(You can of course argue that he could sell the epub with watermark too...)

That is serious hypocritical for the publisher to offer Mobi without DRM but a watermark and force people who read ePub to have to have DRM. But I suppose it's the only way to sell to a Kindle user without sending them to Amazon.

I'm pretty sure I bought watermarked epub and it was changed afterwards. I don't have it in my Digital Editions and I don't recall deleting it. Anyway there are many kindle users but not that many who read English in this country. This is a big company and they definitely have all the agreements sorted out to sell like they do.

Most of the books I buy from them are watermarked regardless of format.